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The world's anti-poverty gains achieved over the past years are being eroded by the presence of multiple crises, including an unprecedented economic and financial crisis, increased food security, oil prices volatility and climate change, said a new UN report released on Monday.

The report, entitled Trends and Progress in International Development Cooperation, was submitted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the annual high-level segment of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), reported China's Xinhua news agency.

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The Chancellor said he was confident that no more families would fall below the breadline despite the rise in VAT and removal of several benefits for those with children. In the final announcement of his Budget speech, he said the Government would “provide additional support to families in poverty”. This would be carried out through an increase in the child element of child tax credit – currently worth up to £2,300 a year – by £150 above inflation next year and £60 in 2012-13.

Because eligibility to child tax credits is being reduced for middle-income households, the measure will benefit the poorest families the most. Mr Osborne said: “These are among the most vulnerable people in our society and they need our help. I have decided to increase the child element of the child tax credit by £150 above indexation next year.“This is a £2 billion a year commitment to low income families. And we make it even now, in these difficult times.

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The province of Punjab is spread over a large area, with a population larger than that of Germany and France combined. The chief minister of such a large province cannot be physically present everywhere. There is a need to develop and implement a system to eliminate or minimise incidents of suicides due to abject poverty. It is proposed that a law be passed by the Punjab Assembly according to which each and every MPA be given a revolving fund of Rs 50,000 to meet the economic needs of the people in absolute poverty.

THE government was accused of trying to abandon targets on child poverty last night, after proposals to slash benefits were revealed.Labour MP Frank Field – brought in to look at welfare and benefits by the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government – is calling for child benefits to end when youngsters are aged 13 or 14.

The MP for Birkenhead said: "At that age mothers feelThey feel more secure with their children when they are over 13 and so on. If you have a crisis at work and can't be home, it's not such a disaster as when you have a seven-year-old coming home from school."

However yesterday, Labour leadership front-runner David Miliband suggested Mr Field was working with the government to "pave the way" to drop the target of eradicating child poverty by 2020.He said: "The commitment to abolishing child poverty was one of Labour's most visionary moments.

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A man committed suicide due to financial problems, police said on Monday. Muhammad Sajid son of Muhamamd Hanif, a resident of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, threw himself in front of a Lahore-bound train near ‘Gawalmandi Pul. Railway police shifted the dead body to civil hospital for autopsy after which it would be handed over to the heirs. This is not an isolated case as time and again such reports surface on national press, depicting that the level of poverty is touching alarming hieghts in the country.

Germany has offered to Pakistan over 31 million euros for sustainable development, infrastructure, health and education and fighting poverty through Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund (PPAF). This was informed by Dirk Niebel, German Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development. He said that after negotiations, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany during the last two years had provided over 54 million euros for various development projects for marginalized communities aimed at income generation and poverty alleviation in Pakistan.

He said that the Germany believed in the improvement of socio-economic conditions of the marginalized segments of Pakistani society, particularly the women, and PPAF was one of the best models to implement schemes for the benefit of the poor communities. He said that it was encouraging to witness an improved level of awareness among rural Pakistani women about their rights and their participation in the development work was also a big positive sign.

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Imagine, if you can, living in a one-room hut with a dirt floor, little or no shelter from the elements, no running water or electricity, in a community that has only dirt roads, no doctors or medical facilities, no police protection, no schools, no employment, where the average annual income is often as little as a dollar a day, starvation and death are constant companions and grinding deprivation is so severe that parents are often forced to sell their children into servitude or prostitution, and infant mortality is extremely high. It’s truly a bleak picture.

Life expectancy in many places is very short, as low as 33.2 years in some parts of Africa (where AIDS has taken a devastating toll), compared to the low 80s elsewhere around the world.

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Modern human is like a human. He is degraded by the modern captilistic system. Childern are forced to work due to poverty. In third world country majority of people are living below poverty line. Now the intelectuals  have to introduced a word which shows the conditions below poverty. The basic needs of life are food, shelter and water. But on this globe so many people are lacking such things.

When the existance of one came into threat then he can do any thing. At that time one has no questions about respect or humilations. His focus is only on the fight for survival. The poverty is the basic root cause for the decline of moral values. But some people are forced to poor condition due to captilist.

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The smaller the paycheck, the bigger the belly, say many researchers who study poverty and obesity. It might seem like a paradox, but not having enough money for food doesn't mean the poor are skinny. The opposite appears to be true: The lower-income are more likely to be heavy than the well-to-do. "Obesity is an economic issue," said Cyndi Walter, manager for the California Department of Public Health obesity-prevention program, Project LEAN. Eating well is beyond the reach of many California residents, she said.

It's easy to make the connection in the central San Joaquin Valley. At least 20% of adults in the region live in poverty, and about 30% are obese. Statewide, 13% are poor and 23% are obese, according to U.S. Census data and the 2007 California Health Interview Survey.

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Poverty has been defined as being "like a punishment for a crime you didn't commit." Millions of children in need around the world are being punished every day - and their only "crime" was being born into poverty. Despite a world that seems to hang on every word that falls from the lips of the top names on the Fortune 500 list, the truth is there are millions of children in need who know nothing of the bright lights and affluent lifestyles of the rich and famous. Their only concern is surviving each day as it comes.

Fourteen million American children are hungry or at risk of hunger - that's 30 percent of the population. These statistics prove that child poverty isn't just a problem in the developing world; it's a problem on our own shores, too. Yet child poverty in the United States could be alleviated for $45 billion, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. Although that sounds like a huge amount of money, it is in fact less than the amount of money given in annual tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans during the 1980s and '90s.

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